UK householders are in for further bad news as French firm EDF has announced a rise in gas and electricity prices by an average of 10.8%. The EDF electricity and gas prices will have an increase of around four times the rate of inflation and will be effective from December 7, 2012.

The energy supplier claims that the EDF electricity and gas prices hike will not affect more than one million existing fixed deal accounts. To help customers from the rising energy prices, EDF has launched Blue +Fixed Price March 2015 which offers customers the opportunity to protect themselves from future hikes in energy prices for the next three years.

Knowing fully well that people are already suffering under recessionary conditions, the news of EDF electricity and gas prices hike is adding fuel to the fire. Martin Lawrence, EDF managing director of energy sourcing and customer supply, said, “We know that customers will not welcome this news and do not want to see prices going up. Our new prices will however be cheaper on average than those of all the other major suppliers which have announced standard price rises so far this autumn. We’ve taken extra measures to make sure the most vulnerable benefit from the best deals and we continue to help customers reduce their bills with energy efficiency measures.”

The hike in EDF electricity and gas prices comes after four rival suppliers increased energy prices. Scottish Power, Centrica, RWE npower and SSE have all blamed the rise in energy prices on the higher wholesale prices, increased energy distribution costs and the costs of government renewable and energy efficiency schemes.

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